


All I want for Christmas is You

by JuliaBaggins



Series: Something Real [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:05:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaBaggins/pseuds/JuliaBaggins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur finally talks to Morgana again, Merlin gets home from his semester abroad and they all celebrate Christmas together...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [julietRichan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/julietRichan/gifts).



> Many Thanks to julietRichan - your prompt for a christmassy Merlin/Arthur-FanFic was what made me start watching the show, and I love it so much! ♡
> 
> And a big hug to all of those people who were leaving kudos & comments at my prior works! ♡

It was a week before Christmas and the whole city of London seemed to be in a rush; everybody being busy with shopping and preparations for the holidays. The same went for San Francisco, though the weather there may have been a bit better – everyone was getting ready for Christmas in California as well. The young man that went through the airport was one of them as he would be flying home for Christmas, his semester in the States coming to an end. He turned around to catch a last view of the city he had grown to love over the past few months before he headed for his terminal; feeling slightly uncomfortable when he thought about how he would be in a plane in a few minutes. Merlin had never been a big fan of flying, though his last flight had changed his life in a rather nice way. He smiled at the memory…

 

At the same time, Arthur looked at his phone, hesitating. He had already opened her profile in his contact list, saw her smiling up at him from the small picture – it would just need one more touch to start the call. Though it would be just one little movement of his finger, Arthur was scared, so he continued staring at the phone display. 

He hadn’t talked to his sister for over a year, ever since she broke with his father. Arthur regretted some of the things he had said to her, he had done so almost immediately when she stormed out of their family’s house to never come back, but he had never apologized. At first, he thought (or better _hoped_ ) that she would turn up at the doorstep again, and when he finally realized that this wasn’t going to happen, he was too ashamed by his own behavior to even think of talking to her. 

Last Christmas had sucked without Morgana; without her laugh, the way her jewelry in Christmas-style sparkled in the candlelight, without their teasing. His father hadn’t mentioned her even once during the holidays.

This year, Arthur’s father was not at home for Christmas as he had to attend some important security conference in South Africa, and when he had informed Arthur about that, back in April, the young football player had planned to simply visit some fancy Christmas party in the city and just get drunk enough to forget what a mess his family was. 

Of course that had been _before_ he met Merlin.

Now, Arthur sat at his kitchen table, a Christmas-checklist in front of him. He stared at the words _“Call Morgana”_ he had written there himself about a week ago. The letters seemed to look back at him; the little _‘a’_ they used to write in exactly the same way… And finally, he put his phone up again and just did it; he called his sister.

 

“Morgana, your phone!”

Morgana looked up from the recipe she had been studying and found Gwen standing in front of her, Morgana’s phone in her hand. They shared a quick smile before Morgana took it and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Morgana, is that you?”

 _“Arthur?”_ She was sure her mind had played a trick on her but when the caller continued talking, she couldn’t deny that it was her brother.

“Yeah, it’s me. Morgana, I don’t know where to start. There are things, well, things I regret saying, and I’m sorry.”

“Did you just _apologize_ to me?” Morgana was laughing a bit shaky before she continued speaking. “Can’t remember that ever happening before.”

Arthur felt himself smiling. “Me neither, so you should enjoy it.”

Morgana laughed with Arthur, just like old times, and both of them felt like a big weight was put away from their shoulders. Though both of them had tried their best to ignore it, they had missed each other a lot during the past months.

 

“So, little brother, are you calling just to apologize for the first time in your life or is there something else you wanted to talk about in particular? I mean, it has been 15 months, and though I’ve watched all of your matches I barely know anything about your private life! You’re seeing someone at the moment?”

Arthur blushed and he was glad that Morgana couldn’t see that through the phone.

“Yes, I’m seeing someone. His name’s Merlin and he’s living in California at the moment so we don’t actually _see_ each other, but we talk on Skype a lot and he’s coming home for Christmas.”

“Wow.”

“Morgana?”

“Damn, I’m proud of you, little brother! I want to meet that Merlin as soon as possible! What did father say about that?”

“I didn’t tell him.”

“Well, oh.” 

Morgana tried not to be disappointed. She knew that her brother’s relationship with their father was not much better than hers and of course she knew how it was to deliver news like that to a man like Uther Pendragon, but still, she had hoped for a moment that her brother had told him.

Arthur banished the thoughts about his father from his mind, as he had done earlier when Morgana had told him how she watched all of his games. Both would just lead to emotions he couldn’t handle at the moment.

 

After a moment of awkward silence, Arthur spoke again.

“Morgana, I know this is really late to ask as the holidays are so soon, but would you maybe like to spend some time together at Christmas?”

“Oh Arthur, of course!” Morgana felt a single tear running down her cheek and she bit her lip.

“Great! I’m planning a little Christmas party at my London-flat; Merlin will be there, and Lance, and you’re very welcome to join!”

“Can Gwen join us too?”

“Yes, of course!”

Arthur had avoided asking about his sister’s girlfriend as he had no clue if they were still a couple after all of this time and now, as he knew that they were, the fact made him really happy. He was looking forward to seeing Gwen again as he had always liked her and he smiled every time his sister mentioned her during their following talk; the way she said her name spoke volumes of how happy and how in love they still were. 

Morgana and Arthur ended their phone call about half an hour later, both with a smile on their faces and a very warm feeling in their heart…

 

Arthur wished his teammates a Merry Christmas, double-checked with Lance about the time they’d meet for their celebrations and then drove towards the airport. He shot a view at the red roses lying in the passenger seat and hoped that Merlin would like them. It was silly, as he considered Merlin his boyfriend for more than four months now, but as the time they had _actually_ spend together _in person_ was barely longer than two days, Arthur felt himself being rather nervous at the thought of seeing him again at the airport. Especially as it was a surprise; he had told Merlin that he would be busy with training and send a cab to pick him up.

Arthur took a deep breath when he turned the engine off at the huge parking spot next to the airport’s entrance. With the roses in his left hand, he headed for the area for the arriving flights. The information panel informed him that the plane from San Francisco had just landed so Merlin would be here within minutes. _It will be fine,_ Arthur told himself.

 

Merlin yawned while he walked through the airport with his suitcase and backpack. He had taken some medicine before the start to calm down his nerves during the flight (which had worked very well) but it also had the effect of letting him feel still tired, no matter that he had just slept for more than ten hours straight.

Arthur saw Merlin before Merlin saw Arthur, which was probably logical as he was actually _looking_ for him. He noticed how messy Merlin’s hair was and though he had planned to wait with his surprise until his boyfriend had gotten nearly to the crowd of waiting people, he couldn’t withstand the temptation of getting to him as fast as possible; the thought of how good it would feel to ruffle that hair again after such a long time stuck in his head.

Merlin looked up in surprise when he noticed the blond man running in his direction and barely had time to recognize Arthur and ask himself what was going on here before the football player had already wrapped his arms around Merlin and put a kiss to his head.

“I’m so glad you’re back.”, Arthur whispered against Merlin’s hair.

Merlin was overwhelmed by his feelings; the sound of love in Arthur’s voice made his heart jump, and he wasn’t able to speak, so he did the only thing that was right. He kissed Arthur and their lips fitted together as good as they had in San Francisco and both of them forgot everything around them while they melted into the kiss. Neither Merlin nor Arthur paid attention to the families reuniting around them, the other people who hugged each other, the announcements about future flights from the loudspeakers, the Christmas music that was played between them or the man with the camera who stood only a few feet away. None of it mattered because _finally_ , they were back together.

 

Merlin fell asleep about a minute after he had sat down in Arthur’s car and didn't wake up for the rest of the drive. Arthur almost felt guilty when he parked in front of his building an hour later and had to wake his boyfriend up, but he saw no other way. He woke him by placing light kisses on Merlin’s cheeks and when Merlin finally opened his eyes, he smiled a sleepy smile at Arthur.

Arthur carried Merlin’s luggage up to his flat and told him to make himself comfortable while he would look after some tea. When Arthur got back to the living room a few minutes later, two steaming cups of tea in his hands, he expected to find Merlin at the sofa - but it was empty. Arthur frowned. He sat the tea down at the table and went looking for Merlin, only to find him in his bedroom. 

Merlin was lying on top of the blankets, wearing nothing but his boxers. And he was asleep; breathing soft and steady. Arthur stood in the doorframe for a few moments – that was a sight his bedroom didn’t saw every day after all. He considered waking Merlin up, as his plan when he got here had certainly not involved falling asleep right away, and the thought was tempting, but Arthur decided against it. Instead, he changed into his pajamas and went to lay down next to Merlin, wrapping a blanket around both of them. Merlin shifted slightly in his sleep so his head rested on Arthur’s chest and the football player softly curled his arms around his sleeping boyfriend, thinking about how this was the absolute best way one could start Christmas…


	2. Chapter 2

Christmas was only a few days away and the weather in London was not very festive; it was raining from deep grey clouds. As it was a Saturday the traffic was not as busy as on other days, but there were still many cars rushing through the streets in the early morning. Arthur had lived in the city long enough to not hear the traffic anymore; it had become a background-noise that didn’t reach his consciousness and wasn’t annoying him that way. What woke him up that morning wasn’t the traffic.

 

Arthur woke up from his dream about winning the Champions League final when he heard a noise. He blinked, wiped the sleep out of his eyes and looked around, searching for the origin of the noise. And soon he found it – there was a young, dark-haired man lying by his side. Who was _snoring_. Arthur had to hold back a chuckle and Merlin snored again. _How was it possible he didn’t wake up from that himself?_ He watched Merlin’s face, even softer than usual in his sleep, his long lashes, the eyes that were moving underneath his eyelids as if they were watching the images of a beautiful dream. 

And for the first time, Arthur thought it. Here, in his bed, as he was watching the sleeping Merlin next to his side, the word _love_ suddenly appeared in his mind – and without thinking about it twice he knew that it was true. He moved closer to him, placed a soft kiss in his dark hair and whispered an “I love you.” into his curls.

Merlin didn’t hear it. He continued to sleep (and _snore_ ) for nearly another hour before he woke up. The first thing he saw when he did so was Arthur’s smiling face above him, eyes fixed on Merlin.

“Good morning.” Arthur said with a smile.

Merlin mirrored his smile before he brought their lips together in a passionate kiss. After a moment of getting lost in the lips and the taste of each other, Arthur murmured “You’re snoring, you know that?”. 

Merlin answered with a “Nah, I don’t.”, followed by a cute little laugh that distracted Arthur way too much to argue further about the snoring…

 

While Merlin got dressed later, Arthur had a look at his Christmas-checklist. Some points were already checked, some weren’t – _“Christmas tree”_ was one of the latter and he decided to ask Merlin if he would like to go and buy a Christmas tree today. Arthur had promised himself to make this Christmas perfect for Merlin when his boyfriend had mentioned a few weeks ago how he hadn’t celebrated it properly during the last years, how he had no one to celebrate with. So this would be the most Christmassy Christmas of all Christmases. Merlin deserved that.

Merlin hugged Arthur when he heard the question about the tree and said how he would love to go and buy one so they went out, curled together under one umbrella (Arthur was absolutely not sorry for owning only one and neither was Merlin) to get to Arthur’s car as dry as possible. 

When they stopped in front of a shop that sold Christmas trees, judged by the tree-shaped billboard next to the door, Arthur turned the car off. The rain had subsided so they didn’t need the umbrella, well, they wouldn’t have needed it necessarily – Arthur still opened it to have an excuse to walk the few meters to the shop’s entrance as close to Merlin as possible.

 

As soon as they got inside they started to look at a bunch of Christmas trees, wondering what size would look best in Arthur’s flat. Suddenly a boy stopped in front of them, his eyes huge with surprise.

“You’re _Arthur Pendragon!_ ”

Arthur smiled and talked to the boy for a few minutes, hearing how Arthur was his role model and he wanted to become a football player too one day. While he was writing an autograph for the little football fan, his mother appeared next to him and started apologizing to Arthur.

“Oh no, Madame, it’s fine, really.” 

She nodded and took the boy’s hand, leading him away but he turned around again.

“I wish you a Merry Christmas! You and your friend!”

Arthur smiled and winked at the boy before Merlin asked if things like that did happen often.

“Well, sometimes. People seem to recognize me quite a lot, but not all of them start talking to me. Some ask for a selfie or an autograph.”

“Hm, an autograph. What if someone would ask you for a kiss?” 

Arthur saw the smirk on Merlin’s face.

“I’d say that I’m sorry, but already taken.”

“Oh, are you?”

Merlin put a hand in Arthur’s hair and Arthur leaned into the touch.

“Yes, I am.”

They kissed before Merlin suddenly pulled away and screamed: “There he is!”

“What?” Arthur had to catch his breath.

“The tree! The perfect Christmas tree!” He pointed to the huge tree standing right behind Arthur and the football player laughed, agreeing to buy exactly that specific tree.

 

“How do we get the tree to your flat?” Merlin asked while his eyes switched between Arthur and the Christmas tree they had just bought. It was sitting in the passenger seat of Arthur’s car, wrapped in a net and some plastic bags. 

Arthur realized the problem Merlin saw – Arthur lived in a historic building without a lift and though walking up the stairs to his pent house was at the most slightly annoying, getting the big Christmas tree up there could be difficult. Arthur opened his mouth, then closed it again. How hadn’t he thought about that yet? 

“I guess we’ll have to carry it.” Arthur suggested and Merlin looked not too enthusiastic.

“Okay. Fine.”

They did and Merlin kept complaining about having to carry the tree while Arthur had to stop himself from laughing. The sight when he looked up was too great – a lot of tree with an annoyed Merlin above it. 

Of course Merlin’s anger vanished as soon as they had put the tree up in Arthur’s flat. 

 

Arthur had ordered a lot of Christmas decorations online and it was a joy to see with how much pleasure Merlin placed them on the tree as well as everywhere else in Arthur’s flat. His eyes had lit up when Arthur had handed him the first star and now, he balanced on a chair, a thoughtful expression on his face, while he installed a paper chain made of stars in different sizes around the kitchen window. 

Not for the first time, Arthur wondered what had happened to Merlin that would leave him alone on the past Christmases. But he wouldn’t ask him, of course not – the expression in Merlin’s eyes when he had mentioned it had been too sad and Arthur was glad that at the moment, he seemed to be happy in the present without any pain caused by past Christmases. And it was not like his last one had been a dream either. 

But this year, everything would be different – now they had each other, and that was all it would need to make this Christmas the best one of all times.

 

It was Christmas day and Gwen carefully knocked at a door that was decorated with a bunch of Christmas lights. After a short moment of waiting, Arthur opened it. As soon as he saw Gwen standing in front of him, a bright smile appeared on his face and he hugged her enthusiastically. Gwen laughed, ruffled his hair and returned his smile when they finally let go of each other. She stepped aside a bit, so Arthur could see Morgana who had been standing behind Gwen. 

Their eyes met and Morgana bit her lip while both of them remained where they were, like they had been frozen to the ground.

“Morgana…” 

Arthur’s voice broke and it was not as if more words would have been needed as this was the moment when Morgana finally stepped forward. She stopped in front of Arthur, put a hand to his cheek and murmured “Merry Christmas” before she wrapped her arms around him. And Arthur held her, he smelled the apple-shampoo in her hair and his heart was beating fast and happy as it realized that finally, he had his sister back.

 

Gwen cleared her throat and slowly, Arthur and Morgana solved their embrace. Gwen walked to them with a smile, placed a kiss on Morgana’s cheek and said “I’m so glad this finally happened!” It wasn’t necessary for the siblings to add how glad they were, too.

Merlin, who had stood in the doorframe behind Arthur, moved forward to the three standing in the corridor and Arthur put an arm around his shoulders.

“Gwen, Morgana, may I introduce my boyfriend, Mister Merlin Emrys?” 

Merlin rolled his eyes when Arthur called him by his full name but there was no time to tell him how ridiculous that sounded as suddenly, he found himself in Gwen’s arms.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Merlin! I’m Gwen, and this is Morgana.”

Morgana and Merlin shook each other’s hands with a smile and they may have stood like that for some more time, smiling at each other, hugging and enjoying the moment, but that didn’t happen. The reason was the pesky sound of the smoke alarm that suddenly started to yell from inside the flat and Arthur cursed.

 

Arthur and Merlin hurried inside the flat, Gwen and Morgana on their heels, and they all reached the kitchen together, where thick black smoke escaped from the oven. Merlin climbed to the table and tried to stop the smoke alarm from doing these horrible sounds while Arthur opened the oven, causing more smoke to escape. When Merlin had finally been successful to stop the fire alarm, they all could hear how Arthur spoke, eyes fixed on a black something inside a pan. 

“Damn. That was our turkey.”

 

Half an hour later, the four of them sat around the table Merlin had decorated with a lot of Christmas stuff and enjoyed some tea while an improvised soup, made of everything they had found in the kitchen, was cooking on the stove. Gwen was just telling a story about an annoying American couple she had to deal with in the hotel she was working in when the bell rang again. Arthur stood up, opened the door and saw Lance standing in front of him.

“Happy Christmas, Pendragon!” 

Arthur laughed and they shared a brief hug before Lance joined him to the flat’s living room where the others were waiting.

“I don’t know if you remember my sister…”

“Morgana! Of course I do!” Lance had already stormed forward and put a rather surprised Morgana into an embrace.

“Nice to see you too, Lancelot.” She sounded amused.

“So, I see you do.” Arthur laughed. “And this is Merlin.”

Lance shook Merlin’s hand with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, Merlin. I’ve heard a lot about you.” He smirked.

“Oh, you did?” Merlin sounded as surprised as Arthur looked and Lance laughed. “No, actually, I haven’t. Pendragon here’s not really the one to talk about private stuff.”

Lance laughed and Arthur shook his head. He continued talking as if nothing had happened.

“And that’s Guinevere.”

Gwen smiled at Lance and said: “Please just call me Gwen.”

She offered Lance her hand but he remained unmoving for a moment, just looking at her face.

“Gwen.” 

Finally, he took her hand, but instead of shaking it, he carefully moved it to his lips and placed a soft kiss at the back of Gwen’s hand. She seemed startled for a moment but when she saw his bright smile, she smiled back at him.

“It’s a pleasure, Lance.”

 

Before they started eating their soup they opened some Christmas crackers Gwen had brought. She insisted that Merlin and Arthur would be the first one to pull a cracker and they did; Merlin brightly smiling at the idea of fulfilling another Christmas tradition. When the cracker had exploded, Arthur looked at the things that had landed everywhere around the table. He picked a cheap little plastic ring up and eyed Merlin.

“May I?” 

Arthur took Merlin’s hand in his and placed the ring on his finger. Merlin blushed, Gwen and Morgana exchanged a smile and Lance chuckled.  
Now Merlin looked around too and picked a crown-shaped paper hat up; placing it on top of Arthur’s golden hair.

“Suits you.”

“Oh, does it? So you like it, Merlin? Me in a crown?”

Before Merlin could answer Morgana cleared her throat and reminded them with a laugh that they weren’t alone here. _Not yet,_ Arthur thought.

 

It was late when Lance left, even later when Gwen and Morgana said their Goodbyes, and when Arthur and Merlin finally were alone it was long after midnight. Merlin was busy collecting used plates from the table when Arthur placed a hand on his hip from behind and drew him close, whispering into Merlin’s ear.

“I’ve got another Christmas tradition prepared for you.”

“Oh, and what would that be?”

“Surprise. Just follow me.”

Merlin did, he let Arthur lead him outside of the flat and up the stairs. He was surprised, as he knew that Arthur lived in the highest floor, and was so even more when Arthur opened a metal door that had _“No access, please don’t open!”_ written on it.

Merlin followed him out of the door to the house’s roof and saw with amazement that it was snowing.

 

“See? I said I had something else prepared: Snow!”

“Oh, so you’re responsible for that snow?” Merlin raised an eyebrow at Arthur.

“Of course I am. How else do you think it would be to explain that it’s snowing right above us at Christmas?”

Merlin rolled his eyes.

“Conceited idiot.”

“Sure.” Arthur smirked at Merlin. “And you _love_ it.”

“Hm, maybe…”

Arthur kissed him, hard, and Merlin couldn’t help thinking _“Of course I do, course I love you.”_ while the snow continued falling around them, landing on the city’s rooftops, on the trees and in the hair of Arthur and Merlin. Arthur’s hand wandered underneath Merlin’s sweater, causing him to shiver, and all Merlin could say was a breathless “Merry Christmas, Arthur.”

“Oh, it certainly is, Merlin.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wish you a Merry Christmas! ♡
> 
> Comments would make my day :)


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